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Friday, June 10, 2016

Pain in the Old West

by J.E.S. Hays

After a hard
day on the trail, your cowboy's going to have sore muscles, and he might have a
headache Sunday morning after a night on the town. Here are some typical pain
remedies your characters might have tried. When possible, I've included the
ingredients, prices, and any advertisements I found. I've also included
approximate dates for the brands, so you can figure out if it would have been
on the druggist's shelves when your characters were looking.

•Dover’s
Powder: from the 1700's,
opium and ipecac

•Pain
Killer: 1854-1895, opium? (“adapted for both internal and external
application, and reaches a great many complaints, such as sudden colds, chills,
congestion or stoppage of circulation, cramps, pains in the stomach, summer and
bowel complaints, sore throat, etc. Applied externally, it has been found very
useful for sprains, bruises, rheumatic pains, swelled face, etc. Arising from
toothache” “Is just what its name implies - a killer of pain. It is not a
cure-all but is just the thing needed in case of the slight ailments and
accidents which occasionally afflict us all. For cholera morbus, cramps, and
all bowel troubles, it has no equal. It removes all pain and soreness from
cuts, bruises and burns, etc. (It smarts upon application, but only for a
moment)”)

•Miller’s
Anodyne Cordial: 1872-1883, morphine and chloral
hydrate

•Mrs.
Winslow’s Soothing Syrup: 1849, 65 mg morphine per ounce
("Should always be used when children are cutting teeth. It relieves the
little sufferer at once; it produces natural, quiet sleep by relieving the
child from pain, and the little cherub awakes as 'bright as a button.' It is
very pleasant to taste. It soothes the child, softens the gums, allays all
pain, relieves wind, regulates the bowels, and is the best known remedy for diarrhoea,
whether arising from teething or other causes.") for children, but adults
sometimes indulged! 25 cents

•Alcock’s Porous Plasters
(“Seem to possess the power of accumulating electricity and imparting it to the
body, whereby the circulation of the blood becomes equalized upon the parts
where applied, causing pain and morbid action to cease” “For lumbago and all
pains”); worn on the breast or between the shoulders or over the kidneys; other adverts suggested using them for such varied
disorders as quinsy (you had to put a strip of plaster under your chin,
stretching from ear to ear), diabetes, St Vitus’s Dance, epilepsy,
dyspepsia, diarrhoea, coughs and colds, asthma, pleurisy, whooping cough,
consumption, ruptures, sciatica, paralysis, rheumatism, tic douloureux and
kidney problems. (The ads boasted that it only took 2 seconds to apply the
plaster. Getting it off, however, was another matter. Dick’s Encyclopaedia
noted in 1872 that: These plasters adhere very firmly, frequently requiring the
application of heat (by means of a hot towel or warm flat-iron), for their
removal.)

•Powdered Antikamnia: 1890-1906, codeine, quinine, salol
("Analgesic, antipyretic, and anodyne. It will reduce temperature and
relieve pain with the greatest certainty and celerity, and has no evil after
effects. Valuable in neuralgia, myalgia, sciatica, acute rheumatism,
hemicrania, also headache and other neuroses due to irregularities of
menstruation.")